AWS held its 15th Anniversary on Saturday night in South Gate, CA at the American Legion Post #335 featuring Tyler Bateman vs. Ryan Taylor, B-Boy and Lil’ Cholo vs. Brian Cage and Willie Mack, and more. Click for scattered thoughts.
This was my first AWS show in 12 years. Having not been to a show since the Frank & Son’s days, I was eager to see what the new generation of AWS was like. I really enjoyed the atmosphere here. Onto the matches.
Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) vs. Human Tornado & Adrian Quest
This match its fair share of spots and dives, but overall felt sloppy. Quest hit a few cool spots and Tornado hit a dive to the outside. Los Luchas had some nice double team moves, including one where they had Tornado’s legs draped on the top ropes, followed by him being hit with a Lungblower into a moonsault from one of Los Luchas. Phoenix Star and Zokre got the win. It wasn’t the smoothest match, but it provided some entertainment.
Rating: **
Buggy Nova vs. Gabi Castrovinci
Man, that Gabi chick was really hot. I’m telling you dude, Brazilian women are legit the hottest chicks in the world. As far as the match goes, it wasn’t very well structured and there were some blown spots by Gabi. Neither Buggy or Fabi were that bad, but it just felt like they weren’t on the same page in this match. Buggy got the win.
Rating: *
AWS Lightweight Championship Match – SoCal Crazy (c) vs. Suede Thompson vs. Eli Everfly vs. Mariachi Loco
This was a very fun spotfest. Suede Thompson was completely different here than when I usually see him on CWFH as he’s mostly doing lame shit. Here he was just a shit talking heel, and it worked. Lots of fun sequences throughout the match, and there were several dives. The crowd really enjoyed this one, and Eli had the best performance of the match. Good stuff here. SoCal Crazy got the win to retain the title.
Rating: ***1/4
Brody King vs. Jeckles The Jester
I had never seen Jeckles prior to this match, and I came away very impressed with his performance. During his entrance, Jeckles kept mad dogging some kid in the crowd and got that kid upset to the point where ring announcer Jessica Renee and Melissa Santos had to console them. Brody would go after Jeckles and beat him up and dedicated the beating to the kid. This was a really well done heavyweight style match, with both guys hitting stiff strikes. Brody hit a sick Tope Con Giro that looked as if he fell on the floor. Brody got the win. Good performance by both guys here.
Rating: ***1/4
AWS Tag Team Championship Match: B-Boy & Lil’ Cholo (c) vs. Brian Cage & Willie Mack
This was my match of the night. Melissa Santos was the special guest ring announcer for this one. The match started off with both Willie and Cage hitting spears and Jackhammers on B-Boy and Cholo, and they came away disappointed when they didn’t get the same results Goldberg got. The match went around the building, and eventually back to the ring for a series of spots and near falls. There was a cool spot where Willie was looking to hit a superplex on B-Boy (or Cholo, forgot) but was stopped by their partner. Cage would join in, and then eventually hit a modified Tower Of Doom spot. B-Boy and Cholo got the win to retain the titles. All four guys had great performances in this one, and I really enjoyed this.
Rating: ****
H.A.T.E (Tito Escondido & Rico Dynamite w/ Damien Arsenick and Mondo Vega) vs. The Blue Meanie & Biggie Biggz
This was mostly a comedy match. Not much else to it. Biggie was just a fat dude who twerked and motor boated H.A.T.E. Blue Meanie was Blue Meanie. He danced and got the crowd to pop for various things. In the middle of the match, Tito got on the mic and said they were gonna do an old fashion ECW-style Extreme….Dance Off. The music guy tried to play “Dancing Queen” by Abba, but the sound system was sorta fucked up. Rico and Tito did a comedy spot where the baby faces pulled their trunks down forcing Tito and Rico to show their asses to the crowd. Not good. Damien Arsencik was very entertaining as a manager, while Mondo is useless. Plus he’s really not that funny and not that good of a talker. H.A.T.E got the win in this one. It was what it was.
Rating: * (I mean, it was a comedy match .What are you expecting?)
Ray Rosas vs. Douglas James
This was a really fun match. Both guys had really strong performances in this one. The match started off with Ray (sporting new LA Rams inspired trunks) waiting for Douglas James to make his entrance. As Douglas went through the curtain, Ray was standing there waiting. They faced off until Pinky attacked Douglas from behind and helped Ray soften him up a bit. Eventually Ray told Pink he had this and said he would beat Douglas in under three minutes. That didn’t happen. There was a lot of good stuff in this. Some fun crowd brawling and a bunch of topes by Douglas James were done in this. Ray hit Douglas James with four Fireman’s Carry into a Neckbreaker across the knee to get the win. After the match, Douglas got up slowly and Ray was surprised he could even get up, and left without shaking his hand. This was a really good match, and the second best of the show.
Rating: ***1/2
Ruby Raze vs. Taya Valkrie
I had never seen Taya before and came away being amazed at how well she spoke Spanish for a white chick. Taya had tons of charisma and did a good job with the crowd work. The match itself wasn’t the best. Ruby was alright, and Taya had a good performance, but it just felt a little weird. The finish saw Taya use a chair on Raze to get herself DQ’d. I honestly wasn’t feeling this match. Taya was fun, but wrestling wise I just couldn’t get into it.
Rating: *3/4
AWS Heavyweight Championship Match: Tyler Bateman (c) vs. Ryan Taylor
At this point it was 11:30PM and I was starting to get pretty tired. Plus it felt like the crowd was sorta starting to get tired as well after a long show. The match itself was good, but I felt like it suffered from going on late in the show. Both guys worked a slow, methodical match with stiff strikes and such, but it never went into 2nd gear, which hurt it a bit. Ryan Taylor busted out some nice submission sequences attempts in this, including a nice counter to Bateman’s Death From Above. There was a false finish where referee Rick Knox was knocked out accidentally and was replaced by another referee. Ryan Taylor had Bateman in a Triangle Choke while Bateman’s feet were on the ropes and Bateman tapped and the referee awarded Ryan Taylor the victory, but Rick Knox ordered the match be restarted, and Bateman eventually won the match after it restarted.
Rating: **3/4
Post Match Shenanigans: Bart got on the mic (at least it sounded like that fucker) and said Bateman has beaten everyone, and asked who should be next. This would bring out Tito Escondido and H.A.T.E. Tito was talking about how it was his time for stuff and all that, but Ray intervened and said they were a team. Tito said maybe they shouldn’t be a team anymore, and Ray wound up hitting Tyler with the microphone, resulting in him getting his ass kicked by the members of H.A.T.E and Justin Borden (who had the fucking worst stomps ever, looked like a little girl trying to kick people, and just seemed so out-of-place when trying to beat up Tyler Bateman, it was pathetic) while Brody King tried to make the save. H.A.T.E took them out and stood tall at the end of the night, with Tito Escondido looking as if he’ll be next in line for a title shot.
Final Thoughts
This was a fun time. The show was long, but whatever. The tag team title match, Rosas/DJ, Brody/Jeckles, and the 4 way were all fun matches. The vibe of the show was cool too and felt like a PWG event from 10 years ago. Brody King came away with the best performance of the night. Dude is going to be a fucking star someday. Good show from AWS. Their next event will be a joint show with Quintessential Pro in South Gate at the American Legion Post #335 with Adam Thornstowe defending the QPW Championship against Jeff Cobb in what should be a sick match.
